HEALTH & MEDICINE

After thousands of years Western medicine is finally recognising the benefits of meditation to treat diseases including mental illness. Under the disguise of MBCT, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, meditation is being accepted as a way to treat various conditions in the field of mental illnesses.

Simultaneous targeting of two different molecules in cancer is an effective way to shrink tumors, block invasion, and stop metastasis, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have found - work that may improve the effectiveness of combination treatments that include drugs like Avastin.

Mitochondria, tiny structures within each cell that regulate metabolism and energy use, may be a promising new target for cancer therapy, according to a new study.

Reyna Robles was always the first one up and the last one to bed: she possessed more than enough steam to come home from her full-time job, prepare a meal for her husband and children, take her dogs for walk and help her kids with homework.

Here's another development in science that seems to have been taken from science fiction. Chemists at LMU Munich in collaboration with colleagues from Berkeley and Bordeaux have shown that it is possible to inhibit pain sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch.

American scientists reported on Wednesday what they called an important step that could prevent sudden deaths due to ventricular arrhythmia or abnormal heartbeat that usually occur during the early morning hours.

Recent studies have considered obesity as a modern epidemic, with many adverse effects on a person’s health, such that researchers continue to focus on issues relating to obesity particularly the role of exercise in maintaining a healthy body.

Scientists have developed nano-robots that can deliver deadly payloads to unhealthy cells.

The Department of Labor is now undergoing a public comment period up until the end of February concerning a new rule which tackles wage protections to two groups that are predominantly female: casual babysitters and companions for the elderly and infirmed.

The status of work-related cancer has received little attention from Australian policy-makers as well as researchers from Australia. Despite the heavy public and media attention for this, the progress that it has experienced as compared to tobacco use and sun exposure could be considered as "minimal". For example, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) established model regulations for the control of carcinogenic substances during the 1980s.

Queensland children who are affected by diseases that impair skeletal health like cancer or cystic fibrosis would soon experience the benefits of a new boned density technology.

When the Tongue Drive System was first launched, many people were doubtful about its effectiveness. This is the reason why many changes were incorporated in this new prototype in order to cater to the needs of people who would benefit from this tool.

One of the most alarming situations in health worldwide involves the spreading of bacterial resistance. This situation captured a young Danish scientist who has now discovered a natural substance found in the rainforest in Chile that effectively combats this problem with antibiotics.

Queensland researchers recently found a new genetic analysis which shows the relationship between genetics and schizophrenia.

A novel formulation for metastatic colorectral cancer has been granted patent rights by the European Patent Office.

For the past years, there have considerable progress in terms of the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of tumors within the brain. Despite the progress made in this department, brain cancer still has low survival rate due to high levels of resistance to the treatments available. In this new research article published in BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Nanobiotechnology, it presented a new way to treat brain cancer.

There is a new "face" in face recognition and this could be in the form of a dot. This is what Associate Professor Ajmal Mian from the University of Western Australia is working on.

Pregnant women who are suffering from asthma should be careful of the medications that they are taking. If a pregnant woman with asthma fails to take the correct medication, they might put their unborn child at risk.

Face recognition is something that people have difficulty with. For people with autism, the process of face recognition is much harder to do.

Researchers have finally had the chance to map the genome of the Tasmanian Devil. This is the first time that researchers were given this opportunity which is also a crucial step in understanding tumuors and how it can relate to human cancer. Recently, Devil populations have been hit by the spread of the transmissible facial tumours.

A new analysis done by the University of Melbourne and the CSIRO revealed that in order to minimize the risks of bowel cancer, intensive screening should be done especially for people who already have a strong family history with this disease

A new formulation for bowel cancer has the potential to ease the way the cancer is treated, as soon as it hits the market.

Does your diet cause environmental damage? It may, according to a new report from the Public Health Association of Australia.

Researchers from The University of Western Australia made an important discovery about the benfits of Gene Therapy. According to the researchers, gene therapy could also cause the changes in shape of brain cells. Previous research results have revealed that gene therapy could help injured brain cells to live longer and regenerate. Through this new discovery, there is a possibility that developing strategies to help develop injured brain cells would be easier to obtain.

AIDS has long been a worldwide problem as many people have been affected, directly or indirectly by this disease. Statistics show that by the latter part of 2009, there were an estimated 3.3 million people who were already affected by HIV/AIDS. There were already 24 million who died because of AIDS and there were 2.6 million people that were newly-affected by this disease.

Previous research studies have focused more in developing pharmacological-based treatments in order to provide symptom relief for patients who are suffering from cancer. However, there are minimal research studies that focus on the different facets of non-pharmacological caregiving activities (NPCAs) during the latter part of a person's life who is suffering from cancer.

Doctors have been prescribing the therapeutic use of aspirin to keep heart attacks and strokes at bay but a new study by Australian scientists now suggests that the drug could also serve as the human body's firewall against cancer cells.

A program stored on a specially designed USB flash drive (memory stick) is now available to allow users to easily record their personal medical history, current medication, allergies and other details deemed necessary or helpful to medical professionals, paramedics and police, in the event of an emergency.

Researchers from Cambridge University successfully created brain tissue from a sliver of human skin. The breakthrough could lead to a cure for a wide range of neurological conditions like Alzheimer's, stroke and autism.